Nokia Lumia launch live

by9/5/2012 12:51:50 PM

9/5/2012 12:51:50 PM

Welcome to our live build-up and coverage from Nokia's New York Lumia launch event (kick off 3pm UK time)! Check out our rumour round-up for what news we're expecting, and our Twitter feed for all of the big updates. UPDATE: The event is now over and our full Nokia Lumia 920 / 820 preview is up!

Big headlines so far

Lumia 920 announced as new Windows 8 flagship phone. Great new PureView camera and wireless charging confirmed.

Oh, and that's that. So no massive shocks there then, very little announced that we didn't already know, although we're looking forward to checking out the new camera technology and of course Windows Phone 8. Thanks for reading guys, 'til the Apple event next week!

4.15pm

As Steve Balmer takes to the stage, we've just heard that Nokia's shareprice has dropped 13% since 3pm...eep!

After some impressive hardware reveals, this has gone a bit downhill. Talk of photo filters and saving websites to desktops ain't exactly revolutionary.

3.40pm

Back to the camera, the interface is trimmed down. Pinch to zoom now available, and a new Lenses button. These are basically filters that are applied before you take a photo - turning the screen black and white, etc. Perfect for those arty shots of your mate vomming on a Saturday night.

In more interesting news, you can do multi-shot burst images with the camera, to take lots of photos in quick succession and save the best ones.

3.35pm

You can pin HTML 5 websites to your desktop, for quick and easy access. Oh and thank God, you can take screenshots at the press of a button! This will make our lives a million times easier for hands-on features. Yours, who can tell. You can quickly save these photos on SkyDrive and share them on Twitter and other social media sites as usual.

3.30pm

Now we're seeing Windows 8 features....

You can resize your apps and icons to fit them all in where you want them.

Windows Phone 7.5 apps still work on Windows Phone 8. Just as well really, starting from 0 again would be a massive problem...

3.28pm

The 'Fatboy' recharge pillow is the name of the new wireless charging dock, amusingly. Coincidentally that's also the name of our office intern. It's a slab that you stick your Lumia 920 on, and it sucks up the power. Virgin Atlantic will place these charging points in the London Heathrow Clubhouse, great news for rich people. The 'Coffee Bean and Tea House' in America will do the same in its branches.

Sunlight readability enhancements react to sun glare to give you a clear view, even in the desert. Good news for those in the Sahara.

3.25pm

Nokia City Lens - another augmented reality app that shows you local services when you move your phone around. Does anyone actually use these things?

Now talk of the navigational features. Nokia Maps will give you true offline maps that work wheter you're connected or not. When you find a route in Maps, you get free voice turn-by-turn navigation, and a daily commute feature that calculates time to your destination based on traffic.

3.20pm

Still on the camera:

"Lighting is generally out of our control"

"We don't have time to fiddle with the settings to capture the perfect moment"

"All too used to dark or blurry photos in dark environments. Blurring is through the shutter being open longer to take in more light. Revolutionary PureView technology captures 5-10 times the amount of light of any competitor smartphone camera, using floating lens tech, reacts to minute movements in your hand to remove blurring. Brighter, clearer images without flash, even indoors and at night".

So image stabilisation will remove blurring from your hand moving when taking low light shots, which is good. Of course, there might still be issues when you're taking a shot of moving objects, we'll have to wait and see when we get a review sample to check out.

3.15pm

Wireless charging also announced

Better photos captured than any rival smartphone, apparently. Blimey. Does that include the 808 PureView??

3.10pm

So far, lots of jargon and stats, as per usual (we normally allow at least 15 minutes for this, or an hour in Apple's case). "We've been simplying our organisation by removing layers of management." etc. But here we go, the Lumia 920 has emerged!

"The most innovative smartphone in the world" with PureView camera....

3pm

And we have blast off. Nokia's CEO has taken to the stage. Places everyone...

2.30pm

Doors are open at the launch venue, we're just half an hour away from hearing about the big new Lumia launches. Time to hit the toilet and sort out some desk snacks - Quavers, or Skips? Hmm...

12:45pm

Nokia's launch event kicks off in just over two hours, and already we're getting teasers from its official Twitter account. Just minutes ago, @nokia tweeted the following:

"Breakfast in New York on a big day for us! Today we dine on Jellybeans"